Kitesurfing offers 'feeling of power'

Instructor Jamie Ellwood of Third Coast Kitesurfing takes a leap while teaching a recent lesson. “The holy grail of kitesurfing is coming back to the point you started from,” Ellwood said.

Instructor Jamie Ellwood of Third Coast Kitesurfing takes a leap while teaching a recent lesson. “The holy grail of kitesurfing is coming back to the point you started from,” Ellwood said.

Photo: Photos By Joshua Trudell / For The Express-News

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Melissa Krenz of Houston learns how to maneuver a kiteflying kite with the help of instructor Mike Wagner.

Melissa Krenz of Houston learns how to maneuver a kiteflying kite with the help of instructor Mike Wagner.

Kitesurfing offers 'feeling of power'

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PORT ARANSAS — For a moment, I'm flying.

The wind and surf splash past and I'm gliding over the waters of Corpus Christi Bay. When I finally stop, I turn around and see that I've covered almost half a mile in a matter of what felt like seconds.

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Skimming the edges of water and wind is what kitesurfing is all about.

It is a combination of kite flying and surfing — the rider is harnessed to a large kite, starting out at about 11 square meters, which, when manipulated properly, catches the wind and pulls the rider along on a small surfboard.

“It's a feeling of power,” said Melissa Krenz of Houston after a lesson on a shallow lagoon near Port Aransas. “You don't realize how hard it is to turn the kite. It makes you appreciate wind power. I couldn't imagine doing it in the ocean with the waves.”

While experienced kitesurfers have reached speeds of around 60 mph and jump 40 or 50 feet in the air, the tremendous power has a fragile edge. Minute changes in wind and temperature can send kitesurfers hurdling across the waves or leave them stuck on the beach.

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Jamie Ellwood of Third Coast

Kitesurfing in Port Aransas offered these tips and more to know before starting kiteboarding:

Fly a trainer kite: “The more time they can fly a trainer kite before a lesson, the better. I recommend buying a trainer kite. Work with it for a week or two before meeting with (an instructor).”

Know physical capabilities: “I don't want someone to come out here just because they saw it on TV and think they can jump 30 feet up in the air. I want them to be realistic about their expectations. Everyone learns at their own speed.”

Be flexible with time: “Conditions are very, very important. This is a sport that is condition-based, and we work around the conditions, whatever those are.”

Take lesson from certified

instructor: “The certification teaches you how to teach. If you just pay someone who's working out of the back of their van, you're just buying them their next kite. Certified instructors want to pass the sport on to someone else in the safest way possible.

As the afternoon lessons wore on, the wind picked up a few knots, rising from 18 to the mid-20s as thermals warmed over the island. That was enough for the kite to rip itself out of my hands at least once.

“Eighteen knots is optimal speed,” said Jamie Ellwood of Third Coast Kitesurfing. “If I could do lessons every single day in 18 mph, that'd make life a lot easier. Once you get experienced, you're going to want more wind, because you're going to want to progress. If you have a little bit more wind, it is easier to do tricks. But in the beginning stages, it is overwhelming.”

Even with the wind, the placid lagoon was a welcome change for Jeff Hill from his first experience kiteboarding, which was on Waddell Beach in California, a haven for experienced kiteboarders and surfers.

“It's all cliffs, big waves and big sharks,” said Hill of Fort Worth. “When I was at Waddell for the first time, I was lofted 40 or 50 feet. I did a huge cannonball. It scared the crap out of me.”

Starting on a much calmer footing, Ellwood and I started my lesson on the beach, learning how to maneuver a trainer kite. It started with having the kite straight over my head in the neutral position.

“That's the safest place for the kite to be,” said Ellwood, explaining that with the kite in neutral, I could now move around a beach and mount a board.

From neutral, he showed me how to dip the kite through the power zone — a band starting at about 45 degrees that captures the most wind.

High School

Angling to the right or left decreased the wind power, while having the kite directly in front of me caught the most wind — enough with the small 3-square-foot trainer kite to pull me off balance quickly.

Weaving the kite in figure-eight patterns from 90 to 45 degrees and back again to build muscle memory for when I got on the water, I recognized a similarity to the tacking pattern of a sailboat, which Ellwood confirmed.

“The holy grail of kitesurfing is coming back to the point you started from,” he said.

While flying a kite on a beach sounds like a relaxing time, the constant pull of kitesurfing resulted in a good upper-body workout.

“If you can't feel the dive in your core, the dive isn't deep enough to pull you up,” Ellwood said. “That's all kiteboarding is — this exact power dive over and over again.”

From the beach, we moved to maneuvering the kite while standing in the water, then bodysurfing while being pulled by the kite and finally strapping on a board.

Capturing the wind, if only for a few moments, is addictive. I'm already looking forward to trying this again.